LAPD officials address 'chaotic' attack on police in Hollywood Hills

LAPD Asst. Chief Michel Moore described Monday's Hollywood Hills shooting, in which one officer was injured, as a sudden and unprovoked attack

By Kate Mather and Matt Stevens
Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — LAPD Asst. Chief Michel Moore described Monday's Hollywood Hills shooting, in which one officer was injured, as a sudden and unprovoked attack.

Moore, filling in for Chief Charlie Beck at Tuesday's Police Commission meeting, said investigators were still looking into the circumstances surrounding the incident, which occurred as officers were responding to a domestic violence call in the 8100 block of Gould Avenue about 8 a.m.

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"Our investigation's ongoing as to how this occurred and why this occurred," he said before cautioning it was "not quite clear that we'll come to that understanding."

Authorities say the officers had just crossed the home's threshold when the man — described by coroner's officials Tuesday only as a 27-year-old white male — shot at them with a semiautomatic gun, injuring one, and then barricaded himself inside.

His identity was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

Police Commissioner Robert Saltzman described the incident as a "chaotic and difficult situation" that "could have been much more tragic than it was ... in particular given the recent tragedy affecting the officers in Hollywood so directly."

The injured officer — who sources said was wounded when she was hit in the face and arm by wood fragments — was "doing well" at a local hospital, Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said Monday. She was not immediately identified.

Saltzman recalled the March 7 death of LAPD Officer Nicholas Lee, who was killed when his patrol car collided with a dump truck in Beverly Hills. Lee worked out of LAPD's Hollywood station, where the officers fired upon Monday also are assigned.